The Last Medscape 2012 Election Survey

Survey 3: Romney/Ryan's Proposed Healthcare Plan (Beginning of September)

The third survey followed the vice-presidential debate between Senator Joseph Biden and Representative Paul Ryan. It generated over 8700 responses and focused on the so-called Ryan Plan.

The first question asked about "premium support, in which seniors would be given a choice of private plans competing alongside the traditional fee-for-service Medicare program on an exchange. Medicare would provide a premium-support payment directly to the plan or the fee-for-service program chosen by the senior, either to pay for or offset the premium of the plan, depending on the plan's cost. The amount of the subsidy would grow at a slower rate than the projected rate of medical inflation. When asked whether this would improve Medicare, 28% thought it would, 62% believed it wouldn't, and the rest didn't know.

The next question addressed Ryan's view of Medicaid, which involved converting the federal share of Medicaid spending into an allotment tailored to meet each state's needs, indexed for inflation and population growth. When asked whether this would improve the healthcare safety net for low-income Americans, 29% thought it would, 57% indicated it wouldn't, and the rest didn't know.

For the third question, when asked whether they thought the Medicare eligibility age should rise to correspond with Social Security's retirement age, 35% said yes, 21% said no, and 41% said it depended on whether there were universal health insurance safeguards before retirement.

And, when members were asked this time who they would vote for, Obama was far out in front:

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Cite this: The Last Medscape 2012 Election Survey - Medscape - Nov 01, 2012.